posted 03-15-99 06:21 AM ET     

What I find most disturbing is FIRAXIS' and Jeff's response to everyones problems. Particularly their failure to take responsibility for the problem.

Two weeks were spent trying various solutions suggested by FIRAXIS, all to no avail. Now Jeff requests that we send our save files so he can work around the problem.
Sending in a save file so someone can get a player past a point is not an acceptable solution to this problem. Expecially since most of us can work around the crash ourselves.

I have sent 4 E-mails to Electronic Arts via the tech support file included with SMAC. Two weeks have passed with no response.

posted 03-15-99 06:33 AM ET            

You haven't ever dealt with tech support from game companies.. Have you? If you have you would know that they are all 18 year old kids who most of the time can't afford the game and have no idea what your problem is. They don't actually WORK for the company but are outsourced (hired from 'techie mills') and get paid crap wages to try to translate your question into a searchable format for thier web based search engine. One they search and find results they get 100 unrelated solutions and they'll just hand pick the best looking one and cut and paste it and email it to you. These people are useless. The worst examples are from Sierra, Red Storm and Eidos (from my personal experience).

posted 03-15-99 09:06 AM ET         

Firaxis is not considering a patch for the Terran.exe problem. Unless, as Brian Reynolds stated, someone will bring a computer on which the crash occurs by their offices in Maryland. This is reasonable? This is personalized service?

If a patch were being considered, I would happily wait. With no patch being considered, (these are Jeff's words, not mine) what I have purchased is a game that crashes everytime I play it, and a game that will crash for as long as I own it.

Sending save files to a company is not a "fix" for the problem. While this may be acceptable as a temporary solution, it is not acceptable for the long term.

Yes I would prefer that developers try to help. To do that, they first must admit that the problem is with the software, not people's systems. Something they have yet to do. Being told, "hey, its not a software problem and we're not planning on a patch" isn't considered help.

And as I said, most people can work around the crashes themselves. It is just that we should not have to.

posted 03-15-99 10:09 AM ET            

jkm

posted 03-20-99 02:58 PM ET            

I'm quite disappointed in Firaxis. Other game companies (most, in fact) are willing to do this tedious task for the consumer... appearantly they are not.

Some people have pointed out that Firaxis can't solve every issue on every hardware platform with every driver... and while that's completely true, I think it's terribly stupid of them to imply that just because a bug is hardware or driver related means that it's not their fault. What is more likely is that they are calling routines for sound cards and/or video cards that other game companies have learned DO NOT WORK, and worked around... ie, they did it a different way that doesn't cause a crash. Firaxis doesn't seem willing to do this for the consumer.

Obviously it's a significant portion of consumers who are experiencing these problems... for every post here, there are a hundred others who don't post at all. I myself have a very new computer (purchased in December from Dell) with standard, good hardware (Monteago sound, TNT video, PII450) that causes me no problems with other games (other than some problems with A3D).

Somehow, those other game programmers managed to avoid these bugs... either they didn't need certain features that Firaxis used, or they did need those features, found the bugs, and fixed them. I'm more inclined to believe the latter.

I greatly enjoy SMAC... when I can play it. The bugs have slowly driven me to play it less and less... it's very disheartening to get crackling buggy sound, crashes, and lockups while you are trying to enjoy a game. I don't want to have to make an effort to enjoy it... so I often don't bother, and play something else. Bugs sap the enjoyment I recieve from the game, and it's sad to think that they'll never be fixed, because the creators don't feel it's worth the effort/cost.

Ther ARE solutions to fixing hardware/driver problems. That's what bug report websites are for. That's what tracefiles and dumps are for. That's what hardware test machines are for (buy the most popular sound cards, the most popular video cards, and a 2 or 3 testbed computers). Yes it costs money and time, but that's just part of making a good game... a part Firaxis doesn't seem to acknowledge.

posted 03-20-99 03:30 PM ET         

In the first place if they can't duplicate the problem it is often impossible to fix or create a workaround. If they can't duplicate your system there's a good chance they can't duplicate the problem. Fact of life that everyone in the software business lives with. And it is a business. If the problem is unique to you then you're stuck. I don't like it that way, Firaxis doesn't like it that way, you don't like it that way, but that's the way it works. If enough customers have the problem it is likely to get found and fixed.